The Little Birkhoff
by garbygal
Summary: Birkhoff has a secret and now they have to rescue her from Amanda's clutches.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Seymour sat staring at his computer screen. It had been a long time since he had last seen her picture and it as much too long. For years he had been far too scared to try to look her up or to try to go and see her. He had been afraid of who may find out about her. Even after Percy's death and Amanda's departure, there was still a lingering fear. He knew it was illogical and she would be safe now, but he still could not bring himself to look her up.

Her hair was shorter than it was the last time that he had seen her. Then again, she had been a lot younger then. Her hair was also a shade of strawberry blond, but naturally she was more of a dirty blond. Even though her clothes were different and her hair had changed, he had immediately recognized her face. She had grown a lot since he had seen her lost, but her face didn't lie. He laughed when he realized that she might be about the same height as he was, if not taller, and her hair was shorter than his. He smiled to himself at the thought. She would probably be just as surprised at what he looked like now- if she remembered what he looked like and if she could get over the shock that he wasn't actually dead.

Now, even though he had avoided looking for her because of a fear for her safety, she was in danger. There was no sign of how Amanda had found her or if Amanda even knew who it was that she had. All he knew was that she was in trouble and he was going to have to come clean to Michael, Nikita, Ryan and everyone else. He looked back at the pictures- the terror and shock in Kaylin's eyes as Amanda grabbed her. It would be worth it to finally tell them about her, if it meant rescuing her from Amanda's grasp.

Rubbing his temples, his eyes glossed over the surveillance photos again, watching the scene unfold through the chronological photos as Amanda grabbed her. Kaylin was completely innocent and had no idea what was going on. He knew he had to get her out; he had to protect her, before his fear caused her more pain. He chastised himself for waiting so long to look into her; for being so afraid of getting her into trouble. His fear and lack of action had the completely opposite effect- now she was in more danger than if he had just taken the chance and told everyone about her. This whole situation was going to be trying. He had deep feelings for Kaylin and he could not stand that she could be hurt. It was going to be difficult to admit to everyone that he had this secret person in his life, but he hoped they would understand that he had done it; he had kept her a secret to protect her safety.

Standing up suddenly, Birkhoff hit the print button on the computer screen. Normally he would not have wasted the paper, but now that he had a recent picture of her, he wanted to keep it around. It had been such a long time since he had seen her, he wanted to have her picture to look at all the time, since for the time being it was safe for her to do so. Normally he would never have wasted the paper, he prided himself on keeping Division paperless, but this was a unique situation. Grabbing the paper off of the printer, Birkhoff headed to Operations. As he got there, his eyes caught the screens in shock, seeing that they all had versions of the pictures Birkhoff had in his hand. "We need to find out who that girl is and what Amanda wants with her." He heard Michael directing the technical team.

Slowly approaching Michael at the front of the room, as he got close enough, he finally called to Michael, "Hey Michael, can I talk to you?"

"Yeah." Michael responded.

"In Ryan's office?" Birkhoff added, not wanting to admit his secret in front of everyone.

Michael gave Birkhoff a confused look, but followed Birkhoff towards Ryan's office. Birkhoff knocked on the door, and Ryan answered pretty quickly, since he wasn't overseeing any current missions- yet. "Hey, what's going on guys?" Ryan greeted them as he opened the door.

"I have some information about the girl Amanda abducted." Birkhoff told him

"Come in." Ryan looked confused since Birkhoff had not yet briefed about the search for her yet.

Once Birkhoff and Michael were in the room, Ryan shut the door behind them and shut the blinds to his office for privacy. "So what do you know, or I should ask, what did you find out about her?" Ryan asked.

"There's something that I have never told anyone." Birkhoff started off with a deep breath.

Both Michael and Ryan frowned. Birkhoff knew that secrets around here rarely meant good news when they came out. "What's going on Seymour?" Michael asked.

"I recognized her when I came across her picture." Birkhoff explained.

"Recognized her how?" Michael tried to get more information. "From a mission?"

"Not exactly." He replied, taking a nervous breath.

Michael could tell whatever Birkhoff was about to tell them must be big. It wasn't very often that Birkhoff was this lost for words. "What's going on Birkhoff?" Ryan asked demandingly.

"I know her." Birkhoff finally reported.

"You know her?" Michael was shocked by Birkhoff's confession. Birkhoff was socially awkward and wasn't a very good liar, so Michael was curious what was going on. "How long?"

"A very long time." He replied.

Michael was even more confused that Birkhoff had kept a secret from them for what he had professed was a very long time. "Who is she?" Michael asked.

"Kaylin Wilder." He replied. "Previously Kaylin Birkhoff, my little sister."


	2. Chapter 2

"Your sister?" Nikita practically exploded.

Everyone was gathered in Ryan's office to go over the situation that Birkhoff had presented. Ryan sat behind his deck, Alex was in one of the chairs, Sean on the arm beside her, Nikita and Michael were on the couch, and Birkhoff stood alone in the corner. Turning around to face the group, Birkhoff replied, "Yes, my sister."

"I thought Division sought individuals without family. No one to ask questions." Ryan was clearly confused.

"We did." Michael replied, equally confused. "Then again, you came before I did."

"No one knew I had family." Birkhoff replied. "I was 21 when I was brought to Division, three years after I left home. I didn't have much contact with my family after I left home. Kaylin was five when I moved out- she was an accident. She would be 22 now."

Everyone could clearly see how upset Birkhoff was and none of them were used to seeing him this way. "You left home at 18?" Alex was surprised and found herself having trouble picturing Birkhoff that young.

Birkhoff nodded. "Like I said, my family and I weren't getting along. It's hard to be ten years older than a sibling. Everyone was busy."

"Did you ever see Kaylin after you left home? Have you ever looked her up or done anything that could have tipped Amanda off?" Ryan asked, getting back to business as gently as he could.

Shaking his head, Birkhoff replied, "I have not seen her since she was five. I don't think she would even know who I am."

"Does Amanda know who she is?" Michael asked.

"No." Birkhoff confidently replied. "I never told her I had a sister, I never told anyone."

"Then why did Amanda target her?" Nikita was already trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle.

"From the little bit I was able to dig up to make sure she was my sister, it seems like she idolized Shadow Walker and taught herself to hack in his honor." Birkhoff replied.

Everyone had to smile at the irony. Possibly without knowing who he was, Kaylin was idolizing her big brother and following in his footsteps. As interesting as it was, they all knew that they had to stay on task. "So Amanda is trying to get a hacker." Ryan summarized.

"She still has a black box" Michael pointed out. "Maybe she is still trying to get all of it decrypted."

"Do we even know where Kaylin was? Where Amanda is?" Nikita had to ask the practical question.

"My family moved after I left. I have no idea where Amanda could have grabbed her." Birkhoff replied.

"We don't know Amanda's current position since you lost her in Ontario." Ryan answered the second part of her question.

"Then our first priority is going to be locating Amanda and where she has Kaylin." Alex plotted the first step to the plan.

"Birkhoff, get the technical team started tracking Amanda and Kaylin. Once we find them, we'll make a plan to rescue them." Ryan instructed.

"Of course." Birkhoff nodded and left the room.

Once he was out of the room and just out of sight around a corner, Birkhoff leaned against a wall, grasping his head in his hands. He couldn't breathe at that thought of the devil-woman having his little sister. His sweet, innocent little sister was getting caught up in the same world he was. "Hey Birkhoff, are you okay?" he heard Nikita's voice as she came into the hall.

When Birkhoff looked up, Nikita realized his eyes were red from crying. "I don't want her to be in the same world we are." He admitted to her, "I never got the chance to protect her like a big brother should."

"There was nothing you could do." Nikita argued.

"I know, but I still feel helpless." Birkhoff replied.

Nikita had never seen Birkhoff this distraught. Usually the man was among the most selfish creatures on the earth, but he was genuinely concerned about his little sister. "It will be okay." Nikita reached over and squeezed his shoulder. "We will rescue her Birkhoff."

"I just feel like I abandoned her." Birkhoff shook his head. "And I can't get over that."

"This isn't your fault Birkhoff!" Nikita repeated. "We are going to do everything we can for her. How much do you remember about your sister?"

Birkhoff tried to remember his sister.

It was a bright and sunny day and 13-year-old Seymour was inside playing video games with one of his friends. As they played, his three-year-old sister Kaylin came in, standing right in front of the TV. "Hey Seymour, get your stupid little sister out of the way." His friend Matt demanded.

Seymour paused the game and turned to his friend. "Don't call her stupid!" he protested, "She's only three-years-old."

"So?" the typical thirteen-year-old teen was coming out of Matt. "She's in our way?"

"Hey Kaylin, come sit with me!" Seymour continued to glare at Matt as Kaylin came over.

Kaylin walked over and sat in Seymour's lap with a smile. "Thanks S'more." She gave him a toothy smile.

"Here, you play." He gave Kaylin his controller and unpaused the game.

Seymour couldn't help but laugh when Kaylin finished his game, beating Matt easily. At three, she was already very good at her brother's games, at least the ones that were appropriate enough for her to play. When she won, Seymour rewarded her with a hug, and then started to tickle her sides. Between giggles, Kaylin laughed, "No S'more! Stop!"

"Birkhoff? Birkhoff?" Nikita tried to get his attention.

"What?" he asked, finally realizing he had drifted off into a daydream and snapped back into reality.

"Were you remembering her?" Nikita had a hunch from the smile that had started to form on his face.

Nodding, Birkhoff looked up at Nikita, meeting her glance. "I don't have many memories, but she was a sweet kid."

"I'm sure she is." Nikita was trying to stay positive for both Birkhoff and Kaylin's sakes. "Are you going to be okay? You could take a break if this is too close to home."

Birkhoff shook his head. "There's no way I'm backing out of this fight. I won't be okay until Kaylin is back, safe and sound."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Kaylin glared at the woman in front of her, taking stock of the situation. Her hands were tightly tied behind her and there was no way she could get loose. She felt her blond hair stuck to the cut in her forehead where this woman's assistant, a huge man now standing beside her, had bounced her head off her coffee gable. She found herself hoping that her roommate Stacy wasn't scared when Kaylin was nowhere to be found. "What do you want with me?" Kaylin finally asked the woman, afraid of the answer, but dying to know.

"I need a hacker. Someone who can help me out." The woman told her. "I'm Amanda by the way."

"You needed a hacker?" Kaylin was confused. "Why didn't you just hire me?"

"In my business we don't hire." She said, her voice completely steady. "We take what we need."

"Great." Kaylin was already annoyed.

"Just do what we ask and we won't hurt you." Amanda directed her.

"What do you need me to do?" Kaylin figured that she may as well find out what she was in to.

"Well, we do some pretty secretive work." Amanda started. "We work for the government. There is a terrorist organization called Division that we are trying to overtake. We need to break them down, then I will take over once we've worn them down."

Kaylin had to admit that at least they wanted her for a good cause. "So what do you know about Division?" She asked.

With a smile, Amanda opened a folder and placed it on Kaylin's lap. On the page were several pictures. "This is our main target." Amanda started pointing to a picture of a small, dark-haired Asian woman. "Her name is Nikita. The rest of these people are her accomplices."

Kaylin's eye scanned the sheet and stopped when her eyes came across a familiar looking face. She couldn't quite place it, but she knew him from somewhere. That much she knew. Ignoring the feeling, she figured that she probably just saw him getting coffee or something the week before. That was, until Amanda said, "And this is their tech, Seymour Birkhoff."

The name caused a shiver down her spine. By the look on Amanda's face, she had no idea the connection between Kaylin and Seymour, but as soon as she'd heard the name, Kaylin went into shock. The last time she had heard of her big brother was ten years ago, when they were told that he'd been killed in a car accident while being transferred to prison for hacking. While he had abandoned the family when he left at 18 due to conflicts with their parents, when Kaylin was old enough, she researched her brother, and found out about him being arrested for hacking.. That was right before he was killed. After that, Kaylin had focused on learning everything she could about hacking to honor her brother's memory.

Now she had a ton of questions for him. Not only had he abandoned her, now she finds out that he wasn't dead like the family had been told, and he had abandoned them again. Kaylin found herself wondering if Seymour had made the decision to fake his death, or if it had been done for him. Everything about the situation had been strange and now Kaylin found herself wondering what it was that her brother might be caught up in especially since she'd now been kidnapped to help find her brother, supposedly in a terrorist group. Nothing seemed to add up, and Kaylin knew she would have to find out what was going on. She was mad at Seymour for leaving the family,, but glad he was alive, and she just didn't know what she would do if she ever got to see him again.

Kaylin tried to shake off her confliction to focus on Amanda to make sure that Amanda had no clue what was going on. She didn't know much about Amanda yet, but she had the feeling it would not be good for her or for Seymour if she found out their relationship. Amanda was continuing to talk, but Kaylin was having trouble concentrating. She could not get over that Seymour had abandoned them, then died, and now he was alive again. The disadvantage was that he might be involved in a terrorist organization. Her brother had a lot of questions to answer, if she ever got the chance to meet up with him again. "So what do you need me to do first?" Kaylin asked Amanda.

"I need you to decrypt this box." Amanda handed her a hard drive. "I got this when I was working undercover for the group.. It has all the information about their previous missions, the people involved and we can use it to get information and make predictions on what they are going to do next."

"Do you have a computer?" Kaylin asked. "And will you un-cuff me?'

"Of course." Amanda nodded to her accomplice, who reached down and unlocked the cuffs. Kaylin rubbed her wrists, sore from the cuffs.

"Where can I work?" She asked, anxious to decrypt the box and see what she could find out about her brother.

Amanda pointed to a computer set up on the side of the room. With a sigh, Kaylin walked over to try to get started. As she did, Amanda's assistant, Davis, walked over to Amanda. "Something's going on." He told Amanda.

Glancing over at Kaylin, then at him, Amanda asked, "What?" she had no idea what Davis was getting at.

"Her face." Davis replied. "She had a reaction when she saw Birkhoff. She knew him somehow."

Amanda just laughed. "Yes. Yes she does." Amanda replied. "She isn't going to know, but I know that she is Birkhoff's little sister. She was looking for him when we brought him into Division, and I was notified of the little sister looking for him. I had her under surveillance, and imagine my surprise when I found out that she is a hacker in his honor? Now, I can get what I want, and I can torture Division- because you know they will pick up that we have her and you know they will have to rescue her."

"Birkhoff's little sister? She's a lot younger than him."

"An accident." Amanda laughed. "She is about ten years younger than he is. She was about eight when he left home. Once she was 13, when Seymour was killed, she decided to take up hacking in his honor. She was a lot easier to track after that. Since then I've just been watching her, bidding my time until I needed to use her."

"Now she's bait?" Davis asked.

With a smile and a nod, Amanda replied, "Yeah. I mean, she's going to get the box decrypted for us, sure. But then, yes, we use her as bait to get Nikita down here. You know they wouldn't leave her in my clutches, and you know that Birkhoff will figure out we have her, he's a smart man."

"So when they come, we'll have a trap set up?"

"Let Kaylin find out some of the information for herself first, but when the time comes, yes, we'll have a trap to get them once and for all."


	4. Chapter 4

*Note: Sorry for how late this is. I thought I had four chapters of everything up, then I realized that I didn't have my paper copy of this chapter, and found out I had never typed it! Sorry! Then I posted the wrong chapter. Here we are with the right chapter- finally. Chapter Five will also be up soon-as soon as I can type it. Thanks for the reviews too- apprechiate them- they make my day.*

Chapter Four

Birkhoff found himself in his bedroom, pacing back and forth. It was true that they had to do their research surveillance, everything they would normally do, but that didn't make the situation any easier. Running his hands impatiently through his shoulder-length blond hair, trying to find a way to calm himself and to calm his nerves. Ever since he had found out Amanda had Kaylin, he had been unable to get her off his mind. The day he had left home, when he graduated high school, he still could picture the 8-year-old chasing him down the driveway, pulling at his baggy pants legs, almost causing him to fall to the ground- or lose his pants. It had broke his heart, but his parents had drawn the line and he wasn't going to stick around.

Sitting on the bed, Birkhoff continued thinking about that day. Kaylin had begged and cried as he'd brought his stuff out to his car. He tried to convince himself that Kaylin would be better without him, but deep down he had always known that it wasn't true. Once he'd left home, Kaylin rarely left his mind. At the time he had pictures of Kaylin on his laptop that he constantly flipped through. Then he was brought to Division and he got rid of the pictures, knowing Amanda could never find out about Kaylin. Even as a ripe, new recruit, he had a sixth sense that told him to lose the pictures.

Now he had wished he had kept them. Division never found his money, so it would have probably been possible to keep Kaylin from them too, although there had been no way to tell that at the time. Birkhoff buried his head into his hands. He didn't often feel this way. He always had a plan- a scheme- something to accomplish what he wanted, but this time it was out of his hands. All he could do was wait for the research and plan and hope Kaylin was still okay when they would finally be able to go after her.

In Operations, Nikita, Michael and Ryan were driving to figure out something to do. Their techs had been working all day, but had not found any sign of Amanda- nor where Kaylin had been before she had been grabbed. Frustration filled the room. They all knew that they had to rescue Kaylin before Amanda figured out who she was or killed her for any other reason. "What are we missing" Ryan asked. "There's got to be something that we aren't looking at."

Sonya was suddenly at the doorway. "I think I have something." She walked in, taping on the tablet in front of her.

Alex, Nikita and Owen found themselves in a warehouse in the middle of rural Virginia a few hours later. It turned out that Amanda hadn't been so smart. Kaylin's phone was on- and giving an updated location on a Find Me app. After they had argued the safety of an application that continuously gave off your location- at least it had been handy in this case.

Sonya had done some research on other hackers and bloggers that claimed to be fans of Shadow Walker, after recalling Birkhoff's statements about how Kaylin had tried to become a hacker in his honor. It hadn't been too hard to track a girl hacker by the name of Shadow Girl, who idolized the deceased (or so she thought) Shadow Walker, more than normal. On her blog was the application, and now they were standing in the warehouse where Amanda was holding her. They were about to take Kaylin back.

Michael, Sonya, Ryan and Birkhoff were back in Operation watching the proceedings. Birkhoff was a mess, constantly pacing in the back of the room. He was too wound up to help, as badly as he wanted to. He was too wound up to sit in his room and wait. Sonya and Michael nervously watched him as they waited for those in the field to get into place. "I've never seen Birkhoff this nervous." Michael commented.

"Either have I." Sonya replied, concern in her voice. She was worried about Seymour. "I'm worried."

"He'll be fine." Michael tried to reassure her. "Remember when he had to deactivate your kill chip"

Sonya flashed back to the scared boy in the elevator. It wasn't something that Birkhoff let others see very often, and when he did, he was truly scared. If he had been that scared about her- a woman he hadn't been dating very long, she couldn't imagine how scared he was for his little sister. Birkhoff was definitely surly on the outside, but Sonya was really starting to see his softer side for those that he loved and cared about. Sonya still caught herself a little surprised still when she thought about Birkhoff having a little sister. "We're in place." Nikita's voice filled Operations.

Michael, Ryan and Sonya looked up at the satellite image of the warehouse. The group was standing in a line of trees to the north of the warehouse. Go when you are ready." Ryan reported.

"10'4." Owen replied, "We are going in."

Owen, Nikita and Ale worked slowly towards the warehouse; using any bit of cover they could find to cover their approach. There were a couple of guards near the door they were planning to enter. Owen and Alex held back as Nikita set up to shoot the two guards. It only took two shots for her to knock both guards over with one shot each before they even knew what happened. Quickly the three of them made their way quickly to the door. Alex and Nikita covered Owen as he kicked in the door. They entered the warehouse under a barrage of fire. Nikita eyed three guards shooting at them as they all dived for cover.

Taking turns shooting, Ale and the others also had to watch for other guards coming. "There don't appear to be any other guards around." Sonya reported.

Owen fired again and took down the closest agent. The two remaining guards continued firing, not even pausing when Owen knocked the third agent off. Nikita had hoped to catch them off guard, but it seemed like they were prepared for anything. Sliding into a more comfortable position, Nikita was taking into consideration, the possibility that it was going to be a fight of attrition- who would run out of bullets first.

Ale got a lucky shot and knocked the second agent to the ground. With three people shooting at one, it did not take too much longer for them to get the third agent down. Hearts pounding, Nikita triggered her earpiece and asked, "Where now?"

"Straight ahead. Hallway with one exit into the room Amanda has Kaylin in. There are six guards in the room, two more outside of the door." Sonya reported.

While they all checked their weapons and reloaded, back in Division Birkhoff was practically climbing the walls, wearing a rove into the carpet where he was pacing. Sonya, Ryan and Michael watched the screens with baited breath, waiting to see what would happen during Kaylin's rescue.

Meanwhile Owen, Nikita, and ale made their way into the hallway. Owen lead the way, Nikita and Alex covering behind him. It was strange for all of them. This wasn't a mission for just some random person, yet they didn't actually know the young woman. Yet, her connection through Birkhoff made her as important as family already. This mission could not fail- for Birkhoff's sake.

In the hallway they had no cover, so they were going to have to be fast. As they came to the end of the hallway, they quickly began to shoot at the guards outside the door, before they even could see them. Luckily they got the guards down quickly and headed into the door to their next battle- the six guards and Amanda. The entrance they came in was the only one in the room, so the minute they entered, the guards started firing at them. Owen fired covering shots as they all dived for the closest cover. On their initial firing they were able to hit one guard, leaving five more and Amanda. "You can't win!" Amanda shouted from her perch beside Kaylin.

"We sure as hell aren't leaving without her." Nikita yelled back.

"What makes you so interested in some random tech girl? Usually you only leave the rescuing to people of importance."

Nikita rolled her eyes. The true evilness of Amanda was stunning. She would do anything for her cause. "We rescue all of the innocent people you abduct." Nikita replied.

"Good luck!" Amanda laughed.

The firefight continued. They had hit a couple of the guards, but the guards still continued the fight. It was getting nowhere and the Division supply of ammo was depleting fast. Since they were in Virginia, their backup was states away and they were stuck with what they had. Back in Operations all they could do was watch- without cameras, only the blueprints of the warehouse and the exterior cameras, there was nothing they could do to help. "Hey Nikita!" Owen finally called, "I have an idea!"

Nikita wasn't entirely sure she wanted to hear an idea from Owen in the middle of a firefight. The man had a history of bad ideas since he still didn't have much experience in the field. At this point she was open to suggestions, because this firefight was going nowhere. "What?" Nikita asked.

Five minutes Owen was off. Nikita and Alex fired at the guards keeping their attention. They tried not to look in Owen's direction as not to tip off their plan. Alex finally got one of the guards in the chest, dropping him to the floor. "Another down." She reported back to Operations.

Ryan and Michael looked at each other, then Birkhoff, still at the back of the room, acing frantically and chewing his nails- something that neither had ever seen him do before. "Sonya," Ryan asked, "You can't find anything to help them?"

Looking back at Ryan, Sonya shook her head. "Without cameras we can't see what's going on to try to help." She replied.

Owen accomplished his goal of surprising the guards from behind when he jumped towards them, firing two shots before thy turned to fire towards him. The guards were surrounded- although not ideally since Owen was by himself. With Owen's surprise and location change, things finally started to go their way. They finally had only one guard left. Both Own and Alex fired at the same time and the guard fell to the ground. A split second later, in slow motion, he watched Alex, directly behind the remaining guard, fell to the floor. Her shot to the chest had taken the guard down, but not before Owen's shot had gone past the guard and hit Alex right in the shoulder. Nikita rushed towards Alex, managing to scream across the room to Owen, "Get Kaylin!"

Jumping some boxes that hid Amanda and Kaylin from the guards, gun drawn, Owen was shocked to find that Amanda was gone. Even more surprising, she had left Kaylin there, tied to a metal folding chair. Pulling a pocket knife from his jeans, Owen cut the ropes holding the girl in place. "We're here to rescue you." He told her as he cut the remaining rope, holding her left arm in place. "My name is Owen."

Kaylin looked completely in shock. Slowly she stood, looking like she wasn't sure if she could believe what was going on. Owen gestured for her to follow him, but Kaylin just stood there in shock. "Come on!" Owen tried to command her.

The girl remained frozen in place. Owen made a split-second decision and picked her up, carrying her towards Nikita and Alex. The young woman didn't say a word, her legs dangling over Owen's arms as he carried her across the room. Nikita was frantically patching up Alex's shoulder with a pressure dressing. The wound looked painful, Alex's face registering some substantial pain, but she was okay overall. "We have to go!" Owen insisted. "We don't know where Amanda is or what she may have planned."

Nikita looked at Alex, asking, "Are you okay to move?"

Checking her shoulder gingerly, Alex nodded to the affirmative. "Is she okay?" Alex asked Owen.

"I'm fine." They were all surprised to hear Kaylin speak. "Just a little shocked."

They walked out to the SUV and Owen carefully put Kaylin down in the backseat, net to where Alex had climbed in, her wound dripping crimson drops onto the light colored seats. "We had better move quickly." Nikita pointed out to Owen as he climbed into the driver's seat. "Ale is going to need medical attention sooner rather than later."

Looking carefully around for any obstacles, it appeared they were clear to leave and they drove off back towards Division.

From the upper floor of the warehouse Amanda watched them drive off with a grin. She had not made it easy, but they were still in for a shock. Kaylin was not going to be exactly what they were thinking or hoping she would be. At least, not anymore.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Birkhoff paced impatiently in front of the elevator. Ever since Nikita had reported back that they had successfully rescued Kaylin, he had been stationed in front of the elevator doors waiting for them to arrive back. Sonya had called down to medical to get them ready for Alex and the gun shot that she had received. Normally Birkhoff would have taken care of it, but she knew that his mind was elsewhere for the moment and she gladly made the arrangements in his place. It was nice to see Birkhoff excited to get his sister back. No one could fault Birkhoff for being overcome, since he was going to be seeing his little sister for the first time in years. He also knew that this meant she was safe from Amanda. There had never been a time in his life he had been so excited. Sonya, Michael and Ryan stood back, letting Birkhoff wait in peace.

When the elevator doors opened, Birkhoff jumped in anticipating. His heart was trying to pound out of his chest. Nikita stepped off first, followed by Owen, carrying Alex with a huge pressure dressing on her shoulder, the blood still seeping through. Following behind Owen, stepping off the elevator, was a small, blond woman. She stopped as she locked eyes with Birkhoff. Everyone walked off with a smile to allow their reunion in private. "Kaylin?" Birkhoff nervously greeted her.

"Seymour?" she asked, taking slow steps towards him.

Birkhoff threw his arms around Kaylin and pulled her into a big hug. "I missed you Kaylin. I've missed you so much."  
"I've missed you too Seymour." Kaylin replied, giving Birkhoff a big hug back.

Birkhoff took Kaylin's hand and led her towards his office. "This," he opened the door to let her in, "Is my office."

Kaylin nodded and looked around. "Looks like your bedroom too." She commented.

Nodding, Seymour smiled. "I'm the head of tech. I've got to be available at all hours."

"I guess that makes sense." Kaylin replied, Birkhoff noticing as she was starting to feel less nervous.

As she was sitting down on the sofa, Birkhoff asked her, "How are mom and dad?"

"Okay. They regretted how things went with you after you died." Kaylin replied.

"I'm so sorry for that." Birkhoff replied to her. "I was rescued by this place and they reported my death so that no one would come looking for me."

"I was devastated." Kaylin announced. "I had already lost you once, but I always got to look forward to seeing you again someday. Then I lost you again, and I would never be able to see you. That broke my heart."

They sat in silence, Birkhoff not sure what to say. After a while, he finally stood up, announcing, "Well, I'll bet you are tired. Why don't I show you to your room?"

Standing up, Kaylin followed Birkhoff through the maze of halls. By the number of doors it was obvious to Kaylin that most of these rooms had to be employees' bedroom. From what Amanda had explained about Division, it made sense but she couldn't imagine living underground constantly, stuck in the same place you worked. It would drive her nuts.

Birkhoff finally stopped in front of a door and opened it. Kaylin was surprised at the plain white room, no color, no decorations. A small got was set up in the middle of the room for sleeping, a desk for working and a pair of drab grey doors- probably one to the bathroom, she to a closet. "Let me know if you need anything."

"Okay." Kaylin nodded in agreement. "We can talk later."

Birkhoff nodded his head in agreement and left.

As he walked into the hallway, he ran into Michael, who happened to be walking by. "Hey Birkhoff, how did it go" Michael asked.

By the concerned look on Birkhoff's face, Michael could tell the answer even before Birkhoff replied, "Not so great." He replied, "She's still quite upset about me leaving and our family burying me, yet finding out it was a lie."

"Wouldn't you be?" Michael asked him. "Your beloved big brother who abandoned you when he hit 18, you deal with burying him, then he's back in your life."

When someone else said it, Birkhoff could certainly understand. It was a lot for a young girl- a young woman- to go through. "I suppose I've got to make it up to her somehow." Birkhoff finally replied.

Michael nodded in confirmation. "That would be a good idea. Why don't you let Alex talk to her? Learning a little about her and get her more comfortable with us first?" Michael suggested.

"I suppose. It's just been so long. I'm so excited to make things up with her." Birkhoff replied.

Michael nodded. "Just got to take it slow man. She'll warm up to you- to all of us. She's just been through a lot lately and she's getting use to everything."

Over Michael's shoulder, Birkhoff watched as Kaylin let Alex into her room.

"Hi Kaylin!" Alex cheerfully greeted Kaylin with a smile. "I'm Alex."

Kaylin shut the door behind Alex. "I'm sorry about your shoulder." Kaylin gestured towards Ale's injury.

"It's alright. I just came to see how you were settling in. If you had any questions." Alex replied as Kaylin sat down on the bed.

Kaylin scratched her head then brushed her hair behind her ear. "I do have some questions that I'm a little afraid to talk to Seymour about."

"Sure." Alex smiled. "Go ahead."

"What is this place?" Kaylin questioned.

Alex smiled at the question. When she was new, it was the first question she had. "Originally, when your brother got here, it was a secret government agency used to train spies and assassins. I would assume your brother was picked up for his hacker skills. To keep their secretive status, they would take people from prison, say they were killed and give them a second chance here. There were no choices, nothing. You were drugged and brought here."

"How do they pick people? How did they decide on Seymour?"

Alex thought for a minute. "For Birk-Seymour, it was his hacker skills. They overall look for people who don't have people to some looking for them. Other than that, you would have to ask your brother, he was more actively involved in that process."

"How long have you been here?"

Pausing, Alex realized she had to think about it. "I would guess a couple years now since the beginning. Division has changed a lot since the beginning."

"How so" Alex could tell Kaylin was very interested in what her brother had been through.

"Well, the other woman who was with us today, Nikita, she escaped and started a war against Division." Alex found she enjoyed the chance to reminisce about how far they had come in the last couple years. "She planted me in Division's way, they drafted me and I fed her information. We interfered with missions and finally took Division down. Now we are trying to recapture the rogue agents to shut down Division for good- including Amanda- who kidnapped you."

Alex could tell that things were starting to make a little more sense to Kaylin. While the Division story was quite unbelievable, with what had happened to her brother and she proved to Kaylin that they weren't just telling her a story. "Is my brother a nice guy?" Kaylin's question threw Alex off.

Thinking for a minute of all her times with Birkhoff, mostly over the coms or also at Division, she smiled. "He's nerdy and selfish at times, but he's very smart and he cares deeply about his friends, and he would do anything for them."

"Well, I'm kind of tired." Kaylin smiled after Alex told her about Seymour.

"Sure. Let me know if you need anything." Alex made her way to the door.

"Yeah." Kaylin curled up in bed.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

It had been a week since Kaylin had been rescued, and while Birkhoff was relieved to see Kaylin get use to the Division procedures, she was still practically refusing to talk to Birkhoff. Once she was back with him, her resentment and hostile feelings about what had happened had apparently come back in full force. So far she could not bring herself to forgive Birkhoff.

This did not sit well with Birkhoff. He knew what had happened would have hurt his family, especially little Kaylin, but he wished she would give him a chance to make it up to her. It was frustrating to see Kaylin every day, on his turf in Division and not be able to talk to her. Everyone- Michael, Nikita, and Alex- kept trying to remind him she would come around, but so far it had been a slow process.

On the plus side, Alex had been able to befriend Kaylin a little, so Birkhoff knew she was confiding in someone. Alex was showing Kaylin the Division ropes while Birkhoff and the others were working hard to find a safe place to stash Kaylin so Amanda couldn't find her. There was still some debate as to what would be best for her. She could stay in Division or otherwise they would have to get her a fake identity and put her on a beach where Amanda could not find her.

There had not been any discussion with Kaylin yet, because Alex was reporting that Kaylin was still expressing a wish to go back to her parents. Unlike him, Kaylin had left them on good terms, and she did not want them to worry about her. That left everyone else in a debate about what was best for her and what was going to be possible while keeping her safe.

Birkhoff sat in bed, nervously running a hand through his long, blond hair. He had not been getting much sleep through this situation with Kaylin, too nervous about her safety and if they would ever repair their relationship. He yawned into his fist, and then climbed out of bed, shuffling tiredly towards his mini fridge. He wrapped his fingers around a cold can of energy drink, and then slowly shuffled towards his computers. Regardless of his lack of sleep, he still had a responsibility towards Division. He checked all his systems and programs to make sure no alerts had come up since he had last checked the night before. Luckily nothing was going on and there weren't any requests for him to do anything, so far his day was his.

A knock on the door caused Birkhoff to groan. It probably meant that someone needed him for something. "Yeah?" Birkhoff called.

"It's Michael." He heard him call from the other side of the door.

Walking over to the door, Birkhoff let Michael into his office. "What's up?"

Michael could sense right away that something was wrong with Birkhoff. The tech seemed too tired to make his normal sarcastic comments. "You alright Birkhoff?" Michael asked.

"What?" it took a minute for Birkhoff to register what Michael had said. "Oh yeah, yeah, fine." Birkhoff replied.

Michael wasn't buying what Birkhoff said. With a frown, he replied, "Spill it Birkhoff."

With a sigh, Birkhoff replied, "I just haven't been sleeping well. Have a lot on my mind.'

"I'm sure you do." Michal took note of the energy drink in Birkhoff's hand. "Maybe you should put down the energy drink and head to medical, see if they'll give you a sleeping pill."

"I can't take one now. I need to be available if you guys need me."

"We're alright right now. You should get some sleep while you can."

"Really Michael," Birkhoff protested, "I don't need much sleep, I'm fine."

"Birkhoff, you look like hell. Get some sleep." Michael commanded him.

"Fine." Birkhoff huffed, heading off to medial.

Meanwhile Alex and Kaylin were in the gym working out. While Kaylin ran on the treadmill, Alex laid on the floor beside her, doing sit-ups. "So how are things going with your brother?" Alex finally asked her.

"Fine. I guess." Kaylin replied. "I still haven't really talked with him I am trying to understand why he left the way he did."

"No one can answer that except Birkhoff, so you are really going to have to talk to him about it." Alex replied.

"I know." Kaylin replied with a sigh, upping the speed slightly on the treadmill. "But it is hard. I just am not ready yet. I am just not ready to forgive him."

"It must be hard." Alex agreed. "He really wants to make things up to you, but I am sure there's a lot of pain from the original situation."

"Exactly. I spent my teenage years hating him for leaving me. Yes, I experienced that things with my parents and Seymour weren't great. But I always felt like he abandoned me, he could have done more to stay with me."

"Sure." Alex filed the information away to let Birkhoff know later. "You do have to remember he was only 18- barely an adult."

"But he failed me as a big brother. He was supposed to be there to help me, to guide me but instead I grew up practically as an only child." Kaylin replied.

Alex couldn't imagine. She was an only child so she had never had a big sibling to count on, to learn from, and to protect her. To have that and lose it was probably worse than never having it at all, Alex figured. "I was an only child." Alex finally replied to Kaylin. "I know how hard that can be. I can't imagine having it and losing it like that."

Kaylin continued to run without saying anything. Then kind of randomly, she interjected, "It's like someone stabbed me in the back."

That was something Alex was experienced in between Amanda and Nikita. To be betrayed by family had to be ten times worse, so Alex had a general understanding of how Kaylin felt and what was so hard about her forgiving Birkhoff. Still, she knew deep down just like she loved Nikita like family and forgave her when they had disagreements, Kaylin would eventually forgive her brother. She just had to work out the issues, the feelings she had, then she would be able to let Seymour in. "So what would you like to do now" Alex asked Kaylin, wiping the sweat from her face.

"How about we go one-on-one." Kaylin replied, slightly surprising Alex.

"Sure." Alex slowly replied. ""Help me set up the mat?"

Alex and Kaylin pulled the heavy mat into place, and then got geared up to work out. S they started to spar, Alex asked, "So is there anything I can do to help you with the process of forgiving Seymour?" she took a poke at Kaylin.

Kaylin blocked the shot with relative ease. "Not now." She replied. "For now I just need a little more time." Kaylin jabbed Alex in the ribs.

Alex made a quick punch contacting Kaylin's side. "I do know he is sorry." Alex replied. "Just keep that in mind."

"I will." Kaylin replied.

They fought back and forth for a little bit without any other conversation. Alex was surprised by Kaylin's skill at hand-to-hand. As a hacker and a young girl, she would have had no reason to learning the kind of hand-to-hand skills she hand. Stowing that in her memory, she wanted to remember to ask Birkhoff about it later. Alex did end up essentially winning, knocking Kaylin to the floor, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was very off about how well Kaylin had fought her. In case something was wrong, she decided not to ask Kaylin about it, as not to alert her to any suspicions they had. She wanted to talk to at least Michael and Nikita about it before anything else. "Good fight." Kaylin finally commented to Alex.

"Yeah." Alex was distracted. "I hope you learned a few things to protect yourself next time."

"I did. Thanks." Kaylin replied with a smile. "I am going to go rest but let me know when you have some time again. I would love to learn more."

"Sure." Alex wiped sweat from her arms as Kaylin smiled and walked towards her room. There was definitely something going on, but Alex could not quite put her finger on it.

She decided to wait to shower and to approach Michael now. She wasn't sure exactly what was causing her gut feeling, but it was strong and Alex knew she had to pass the information right away. After wiping as much sweat as she could from her body, Alex headed to Operations. Now it was once again Operations where you were most likely to find Michael.

Sure enough as Alex walked into the room, Michael was pacing through Operations. There wasn't a current mission they were working on, so Alex figured Michael was overseeing their search for somewhere safe to stash Kaylin. "Alex." Michael greeted almost immediately, "What can I do for you?"

"Can we talk? I have some concerns I'd like to talk to you about." Alex quietly told him.

Scratching his head, Michael asked, "About what?"

"Kaylin." She replied.

Thinking for a few seconds, Michael finally replied. "Get Birkhoff. We'll talk in your old recruit room in fifteen minutes. I'll find Nikita."

Alex nodded, heading for Birkhoff's office. The way Michael had responded seemed almost like he was expecting what Alex had said and that was really concerning. She just couldn't put her finger on exactly what she through the problem was, but it was clear that something was off about Kaylin.

As she got to Birkhoff's office, she checked the sign that signified if the tech genius was in his room or not. He changed it whenever he went off-campus or out of his rom so people knew where they could find him. She was relieved by "the genius is in" sign knowing she wouldn't have to chase him down. She knocked gently on his door.

She was surprised when he didn't answer. Birkhoff never left the sign in the wrong status- in fact she wouldn't be surprised if he had it electronically tied to his chip when they had them, so it would update automatically. She knocked again, this time shouting, "Birkhoff!"

Alex's mind began to panic with the worst case scenarios as Birkhoff still didn't answer. 'What if Kaylin tried to kill him?' She shook off the thought. That would be impossible, she scolded herself. There would be no reason for Kaylin to want him dead. Unless Kaylin was that upset with him and decided to work with Amanda. She could have come under the guise of forgiving him to do Amanda's bidding. It would explain her fight training. Alex began to frantically knock on his door. "Birkhoff! C'mon! Open up! This isn't the time for games!"

Her heart began to pound in her chest as there was still no answer. Her mind spun as she realized there was no sound coming from the room when normally there would be video game noises typically echoing into the hall. "Birkhoff!" she screamed in a panic.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

The door finally popped open after her fifth swift kick. Alex rushed in and immediately covered her eyes in shock. The tech was passed out cold, snoring loudly, his bare bottom sticking out from the blankets. "Damn it Birkhoff!" Alex shouted in frustration that the image would never leave her mind.

"Alex- oh what the hell!" Michael came rushing in then covered his eyes. "Alex," he said when he finally recovered, "I just remembered I sent Birkhoff to medical for a sleeping pill, but I see I'm too late." Michael gestured to the broken door.

"Oh Nerd!" Nikita laughed as she joined the group in his room. She noted the door and commented "Could someone go cover him up since we can't shut the door?"

Alex and Michael looked at each other. "He's your friend." Alex protested to Michael.

Heading over to the bed with an annoyed sigh, Michael touched as little of the bedcovers as he could by pinching the cover between two fingers and pulling it to cover Birkhoff until he was no longer exposed. Nikita got the door back in place so no one would overhear them. "So what did you want to talk about with Kaylin?" Michael asked Alex.

"Something is off about her." Alex replied, "She seems to have a high level of fighting skills. I was practicing one-on-one with her and she knew some pretty advanced combos. Things that her history suggests she shouldn't know."

Nikita and Michael thought about Alex's comment for a minute. What she said made perfect sense- Kaylin would have no real reason to know that kind of fighting. It didn't make any sense though. "Why would she know that unless-" Nikita started.

"She's working for Amanda." Michael finished the thought. "But we've got to get a little more proof."

"We'll have to keep a close eye on her." Alex replied.

Michael and Nikita nodded in agreement. "If she is working for Amanda, she would have some kind of an agenda or mission." Michael replied, "Limit the access she has, what she can see or hear and someone should watch her at all times."

"We can't let her sense anything is wrong." Nikita added.

"What about Birkhoff?" Michael gestured at the tech's sleeping form.

The group all looked at each other for a few seconds, then Nikita finally said, "We can't tell him yet. It would kill him. We need more evidence first."

Nikita walked over to Birkhoff and checked for a pulse. "So how long do you think Birkhoff will be out for?"

"He just went to medical-" Michael glanced at his watch, "half-an-hour ago. So I'd bet he'll still be out for close to eight hours, if not more. He was really exhausted."

Nikita and Alex looked concerned. "Why?" Alex was the one to actually ask the question.

"Worried. He is devastated that Kaylin won't forgive him." Michael answered.

"Poor guy." Alex looked back over at Birkhoff. She and the tech weren't particularly close, but they were friends and she still felt bad for him. The one thing that he wanted more than anything was her forgiveness- a betrayal would probably devastate him."

"What would cause her to work for Amanda" Nikita thought aloud. Glancing over at Birkhoff, then looking back, she commented, "No matter how much Birkhoff hurt her, how could she do that to him"

Michael shrugged and Alex pursed her lips. Nothing was adding up- nothing making sense. "So how long did Amanda have Kaylin? Long enough to torture and brainwash?"

Alex walked over to Birkhoff's computer and tried to pull up the paperwork that Birkhoff had originally found to find out that Amanda had Kaylin. She quickly read through the documents. "It doesn't really say. Just that Amanda had kidnapped her. It may give us a better idea of what we are dealing with." Michael suggested.

The three were silent in thought the only sound breaking the silence a loud snore from Birkhoff. "I'll ask her." Alex announced starting to leave.

"Be careful." Nikita reminded her.

Alex looked over her shoulder at Nikita and Michael. "Aren't I always?" she answered with a grin.

It only took Alex a few minutes to track down Kaylin down in the cafeteria. "Hey Kaylin." Alex sat down next to her with a tray of food.

"Alex!" Kaylin was surprised to see her again so soon.

"Decided I was too hungry to wait." Alex smiled and took a bite of food.

"We did get a pretty good workout exercise in." Kaylin smiled.

Quickly Alex's mind worked to try to pick the best way to get the information. "So Kaylin, can I ask you a few questions about what happened to you? An interview for our mission records."

Kaylin gestured it was okay as she took another bite of food. "Sure."

Alex waited a few minutes for Kaylin to swallow, then asked, "When did Amanda grab you?"

Biting her bottom lip, Kaylin thought for a second. Alex took note- it wasn't a hard question unless she was debating how much to tell Alex. "It was about a week ago." Kaylin replied. "I think- it's hard to keep track of time with her where she held me."

"Where did she pick you up?" Alex questioned.

"I was on vacation in Las Vegas." Kaylin replied.

Alex filed that fact away. It made their job a little easier- Las Vegas had a lot of security and a lot of cameras so it may be very easy to track her there. "She just grabbed you from your hotel room?"

Kaylin nodded. "I was staying at the MGM Signature. I was on my way to see the lions at the MGM before setting off for the day. Amanda was outside my door when I was about to walk out. She held a gun to me to get me out of the hotel, then in the car she injected something into my neck and I woke up at the place where you rescued me.

"Did Amanda say anything to you? Anything about trying to get you back?"

Kaylin shook her head. "Nothing specific. You guys arrived a little sooner than she expected , I think. She was kind of busy plotting how to take you down rather than talking to me."

"Okay," Alex told her. "We just wanted to know where we stood- what had happened prior to us getting involved."

"No problem." Kaylin smiled. "I didn't sleep too well, last night,, so I am going to go and take a nap."

Alex nodded and watched the girl disappeared towards her room. There was definitely something strange about that girl. She could not place it, but every time she was around her she got a feeling in her gut that something was wrong. As soon as Kaylin was out of sight, Alex walked back to where Nikita and Michael were secretly searching for information in Birkhoff's office. "What did you find out?" Nikita asked.

"About a week ago. She was on vacation in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Signature." Alex told them.

Michael punched up the video surveillance program. "I wish Birkhoff was awake." Michael glanced at Birkhoff's sleeping form.

"You're the one that told him to take a sleeping pill," Alex laughed. "Have you tried waking him up?"

Shaking her head, Nikita replied, "He is out cold. I don't think a hot girl hitting on him would wake him up."

"Hot girl." Birkhoff mumbled in his sleep causing the others to laugh, breaking the tension.

"He is so strange sometimes." Alex commented.

"Oh c'mon. Seymour wouldn't hurt a fly." Nikita replied.

Both Michael and Alex stopped what they were doing and looked at Nikita. "What?" she asked, confused.

"I think that's the first time that I have heard you call him Seymour." Alex commented.

Thinking for a moment, Nikita replied, "I don't think I have ever called him Seymour before." She laughed.

Michael worked on pulling up video surveillance for the MGM Grand Signature a week before they had rescued her. Sure enough, Kaylin's story checked out where Amanda abducted her outside her room. "So she had her about a week." Nikita replied, "That's a lot of time for Amanda to do things to her and turn her."

Alex thought back to her conversation with Kaylin. It just did not add up. Amanda had her a week, but she was only conscious for the day before she was rescued. "Alex, what is it?" Michael noticed the young woman deep in thought.

"Kaylin told me Amanda drugged her in the car and that she woke up shortly before we rescued her." Alex explained, "But that doesn't make sense. Why would Amanda grab her and then keep her drugged for a week?"

"That does seem odd." Nikita replied.

The three of them looked back-and-forth, all trying to figure out what reason Amanda would have for keeping the girl unconscious that long. Brainwashing would be one option but it wouldn't take that long- and it would be something she would have to check by having Kaylin conscious to check if the brainwashing had worked before letting their group rescue her. There were possibilities, but nothing that could positively explain the situation. The fact that nothing was adding up left them all on edge. "So what do we do now?" Nikita finally asked.

"Do we tell B?" Alex asked.

Michael grimaced. "I don't think so. He is so distraught over the situation, I think he'll immediately go on the defensive. That would not end well."

"But how do you test for brainwashing?" Nikita asked.

"We keep a very, very close eye on her." Michael suggested. "Listen for anything that doesn't add up, any tips that she gives us."

Alex and Nikita nodded in understanding. For now there was nothing they could do other than watch and hope that there weren't any problems before they determined if she had been brainwashed. It wasn't a comfortable situation, but for now it was all they could do.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

There was a knock on the door, slowly rousing Birkhoff back to consciousness. With a groan he rolled over and glanced at his clock, he had been asleep for twelve hours. He still felt a little drowsy, but for the most part he was a lot better than before. "Coming." He groaned as he climbed out of bed, pulling on shorts and a t-shirt.

Opening the door, Birkhoff was very surprised to find Kaylin there, "Hey Birkhoff." She greeted him.

"Kaylin." He managed to greet her, still in shock. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk." She replied.

"You're finally ready?" Birkhoff asked.

"Yeah." Kaylin replied.

Birkhoff gestured to her, then shut the door behind them as he said, "Come in."

Kaylin sat down on the couch and Birkhoff slowly joined her. He still couldn't figure out why Kaylin was suddenly so forgiving. "I am sorry I have been so rough on you." Kaylin told him. "I have just had a lot to deal with."

"I know." Birkhoff replied.

"So this is your bedroom? Where you sleep?" Kaylin questioned.

Birkhoff paused, thinking what a strange question that it was. "Most of the time." He replied, "Sometimes I stay at my apartment off-site."

"This life must certainly be interesting." Kaylin asked, crossing her legs.

"Sometimes." Birkhoff replied, "It's a lot of work too."

"Do you like it?" Kaylin brushed her hair behind one ear.

"Sometimes." Birkhoff replied. "We do a lot of stuff that's fun in terms of hacking, but the missions and things and especially the danger, for my friends, is the worst."

"What about your family?" Kaylin asked with a bite that stung Birkhoff.

"I am sorry." Birkhoff told her. "There were a lot of things going on and I just had to get away."

Kaylin rolled her eyes. "But you never thought about me."

"And I'm sorry." Birkhoff repeated, rubbing his temples, "I was young and immature."

"It hurt me." Kaylin continued.

Suddenly it struck Birkhoff that while Kaylin was saying made sense, her tone didn't match what she would be feeling. It's like she knew what to say but couldn't get her tone to match. It seemed off. Tucking that into the back of his mind, he replied, "Seriously, I'm sorry."

Birkhoff replied again.

"I forgive you." Again Birkhoff didn't buy her tone. "It's kind of nice to have my big brother back."

"Listen Kaylin," something in his gut told him to talk to Michael right away, "I've gotta run to Ops, could we talk later?"

Kaylin looked confused, but nodded in agreement. "Sure." He replied, "You know where to find me."

After she left, Birkhoff rushed towards Operations where he knew he would find Michael. Once he spotted Michael and headed towards him. When he got within ear shot, Michael said, "Well, at least you're wearing more clothes than the last time I saw you."

Birkhoff had left in such a hurry that he was still only in boxer shorts and a t-shirt. "Sorry. Listen man, can we talk?" he asked.

Ryan was gone for the day, so Michael led Birkhoff into Ryan's office. "What's up?" Michael asked as soon as they were behind the closed door.

"Something is striking me as off about Kaylin." Birkhoff told him. "She came in to my office and forgave me- but there was something wrong, her tone and her attitude didn't match what she was saying- it seemed totally off."

"We did not want to say anything but we've had our doubts too." Michael knew it was time to let Birkhoff in.

"You think Amanda brainwashed her?" Birkhoff could tell where this was going.

"That's the only real explanation." Michael replied.

"There's one other option- it could not be her." Birkhoff suggested.

"You would know if it wasn't her, no?" Michael was confused.

"Let's be honest- we've made duplicate people before. It's possible. I haven't seen her since she was a little girl. Things have changed since I saw her last." Birkhoff replied.

Michael thought on this for a moment. What Birkhoff said definitely had some merits. There had to be a way to prove it. "Birkhoff, are there any birthmarks, scars, anything we could use to identify her?" he asked.

Thinking for a few minutes, Birkhoff's face lit it up. "Yes!" he replied suddenly, "She has a scar on the back of her left leg. About two inches laterally. We were playing and she cut the back of her leg on a fence, climbing."

Now they just had to figure out how to see if Kaylin had the scar. Michael couldn't believe they hadn't thought about the possibility of Kaylin being a plant. Running through everything in his mind, he finally remembered something Alex had said. He keyed his earpiece and said, "Alex, can you come to Ryan's office please?"

Half an hour later, Birkhoff, Michael and Nikita waited in Ops patiently as Alex challenged Kaylin to some one-on-one. They weren't sure how Alex had done it, but she had gotten convinced Kaylin to wear shorts so they would be able to see if she had the scar. Alex and Kaylin began to work out and the group began to patiently watch, trying to get an eye on her leg. It took a while, but finally Alex got the opportunity to pull up Kaylin's shorts leg.

There was no scar. After an awkward silence, Birkhoff asked nervously, "Now what?"

They continued to watch as Alex pulled out some of Kaylin's hair by "accident." "We'll test the hair to be sure." Michael explained.

Birkhoff reached up and pulled out a little bit of his hair- a few strands. Hey handed over to Michael knowing exactly what they were going to do. "Thanks Birkhoff, but we were going to just draw your blood." Michael replied.

"So how long will it take to get an answer?" Birkhoff questioned.

"A couple days at the most." Michael replied.

"What do we do until then?" Nikita asked.

"Don't let her know we suspect anything." Michael suggested. "If she is a plant, if we tip her off, she may put whatever her goal is into play before we are ready to do it."

"And don't give any extra information to her that she can report back to whomever is running her." Nikita added. "I'll go warn Sean.'

Michael looked over at Birkhoff who looked very well shaken. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"This attack has been placed firmly on me. It's very unnerving." Birkhoff replied.

"I know." Michael felt bad for his friend. "Is there anything that would help?"

Birkhoff just shook his head. "No. It's not you that's doing it." He replied.

Michael had never seen Birkhoff shaken like this. Even when he was dead tired it hadn't affected him this way. Birkhoff was completely shaken. "Birkhoff, let's get you something. I've never seen you this way."

"I want to be able to help." Birkhoff replied.

Michael frowned. "Birkhoff, you're too close to this one. I don't want to see you get hurt any further. Please, let us help you get calmed down- get a little sleep."

Birkhoff looked up at Michael. "Fine." He hesitated to agree.

That evening after lights out, Kaylin carefully slipped out of her room. It was far too early, but after everything that had happened today, she knew now was the time to strike. When she had talked with Birkhoff she could tell that he did not believe her. Then when Alex fought her and insisted he wear shorts, then pulled out hair, it was clear to Kaylin they were about to blow her cover.

At this time of night there were not a lot of guards around, so it wasn't hard for Kaylin to get to Birkhoff's office without being seen. Quietly opening the door, she snuck in, pushing the door shut behind her. She peeked at Birkhoff, who was fast asleep, then slowly made her way, over to the bed. Leaning over, she pulled her weapon from her boot. Flipping open the blade, she jammed it quickly into his left leg. Birkhoff woke with a scream. It echoed in her ears as she walked around the bed slowly, jamming the knife into his right leg. Then, leaving the blade there, she grabbed duct tape from her pocket and taped his mouth shut. "You've been a bad, bad boy." She told Birkhoff once she was sure she had his attention as his eyes tracked her moves. "Helping these guys," she slowly drew the knife from his leg nice and slow, "abandoning Division."

Grabbing the second tool from her pocket, Birkhoff was in too much pain and too much of a daze from the medication to move. Grabbing his left hand from his leg, she taped it down to his bedside table. His eyes grew big right before she brought the hammer down on his hand, causing him to scream out against the duct tape. Calmly she again walked around the bed and taped his other hand down, repeating the process on the other side. Tears began to realize that she was going to kill him.

"Seymour?" the bedroom door opened.

Kaylin reacted in a split second, drawing a gun and firing. Watching in horror, Birkhoff could barely make out Sonya's figure dropping to the floor. Kaylin ran over to the doorway and moved Sonya's body into the room, shutting the door. She checked Sonya's pulse and made sure that the young woman was truly dead. Then she walked back over to the bed. Birkhoff was starting to get weak from the blood loss, and this disappointed Kaylin- she wished that he was more conscious to realize what she had done to his girlfriend, so he could feel that pain too. "Night night Birkhoff." She shoved the knife into his chest, "And by the way," she stabbed him again in the stomach, "Kaylin's really with Amanda."

Birkhoff lost consciousness as Kaylin, or whoever she really was, jammed the knife along his skull, then finished her job by crushing both is feet so he couldn't get help should he somehow regain consciousness. As Kaylin then turned to flee the room, the bedroom door banged open. Michael and half a dozen agents burst in, their guns drawn. Kaylin had no time to grab hers and was forced to put her hands up in surrender. "Cuff her." Michael gruffly commanded, checking Sonya's pulse, shaking his head when he realized she was dead.

Running over to Birkhoff's bedside, it was all Michael could do not to get sick as he got there. All of Birkhoff's sheets were drenched in his blood, his hands crushed and taped to his beside tables, stretching the young man out. Ripping Birkhoff's hands free, Michael shoved blankets against Birkhoff's body as he got ready to move him to medical. He carefully picked his friend up, telling him, "Hang in there Birkhoff. We're going to save you. Just hang on."

Once in medical, Michael put Birkhoff down on the examination table. "Dr. Michaels!" he shouted having already had her paged to medical so she would be there when he arrived, "Dr. Michaels?"

Stacy Michaels, one of Division's best agents and the only trained surgeon appear from the other room. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed as she laid eyes on Birkhoff's lifeless form.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Stacy pulled off her gloves, watching the monitor tracking Birkhoff's vitals. It had been a long surgery and Birkhoff had a lot of recovery ahead of him. The young man had lost a lot of blood and there was a lot of damage to his body. Somehow she had pulled him through the surgery even though he was still in a very critical status. Stacy walked out of the surgery room back into the medical office where everyone else had gathered. The group looked horrible. Their eyes were red and puffy and they all looked exhausted. The surgery had taken 12 hours and once they had found out what happened, none of them could go back to sleep.

When Stacy walked out to them, all of their eyes immediately went to her. "How is he?" Michael asked.

Pulling off her scrub cap, Stacy replied, "He's alive for now. There was a lot of repair that we had to do. For now he is alive but in critical condition. We had to put pins in his hands but we got them repaired. His ankles also had to be pinned. For the head stab Birkhoff was lucky- she did not hit anything. In his chest he had a collapsed lung. In the stomach we had to remove his spleen. We also had to do a repair his bowel and do a temporary colectomy until it heals. We repaired the stab wounds in his arms and legs, now it is just a matter of when he wakes up." Stacy explained. "Did you catch the person who did this?"

Michael nodded. "I don't know what happened, but Kaylin did this. We have her in custody."

"Kaylin?" Stacy was confused, "I thought Kaylin was his sister."

"She is." Michael replied, "We don't know exactly what she told Birkhoff, but we think she is a plant from Amanda-not his real sister."

"Oh wow." Stacy replied.

"Can we see him?" Alex asked.

Stacy nodded. "Just be aware he has a few IVs and he does have a breathing tube in his throat."

They all nodded in understanding and followed Stacy into Division's ICU room. Birkhoff was the only patient currently there. He looked tiny in the bed surrounded by all the machines. A machine kept track of his heartbeat. Every few seconds the vent would nosily fill his lungs with air. "Oh Nerd." Nikita gasped, heading to Birkhoff's bedside.

"Do you know if he will wake up?" Ryan asked Stacy.

Checking his pulse, Stacy quickly analyzed the case again and then answered, "I believe it is going to be about 75% that he would wake up at some point."

The shock was clear on their faces. "Only 75%?" Nikita asked.

Stacy nodded. "The other 25% is that he would remain in a coma or pass away."

"How soon could he wake?" Michael asked next.

"Any time." Stacy answered, "He had no head trauma, just a lot of trauma in general and shock, so it will be up to how his body handles it. I would say it would be a little while."

"Then I am going to talk to Kaylin." Michael suddenly stormed off.

He went to holding where the young girl was locked in a cell. When Michael walked up to her, she glanced up briefly, frowned, and looked back down at the ground. "What do you want she asked him in a condescending tone?

"I want to know why you would try to kill Birkhoff. He wouldn't hurt a fly." Michael explained.

"Because I work for Amanda." She replied. "And he betrayed Amanda- along with the rest of you."

"What is your name? Your real name?"

Kaylin just shook her head. "You must really be stupid if you think I am going to tell you."

"Well, we'll find out anyway." Michael threatened.

"Come, come, you've got to make a little effort to get some information- I can't just tell you everything." Kaylin laughed in reply. "Oh, and I'm sorry to hear that I didn't finish the job," she paused, "yet."

"And you won't." Michael angrily replied, "Birkhoff is a fighter an is not going to die."

"I'll find a way." Kaylin sneered, "The human body can only take so much."

"You're not getting near him ever again." Michael replied, starting to leave the room.

"Then you underestimate me." Kaylin replied with an evil laugh, "Unless you are planning on killing me, you are drastically underestimating me and my power, much less Amanda."

"I think that's the other way around." Michael simply replied, leaving the room. When he caught the guards' attention he said, "Be careful, we cannot let her escape again and harm Birkhoff or anyone else and she may have tricks up her sleeve."

The four guards, all grasping their weapons, nodded their understanding. "We won't let her out." The head guard announced.

Heading back down to Medical, there had been no change in Birkhoff's condition. The heart monitor was beeping steadily, the vent had been turned off- at least that was one good sign. "We've got to keep a close eye on him and everything else." Michael announced to them, "Kaylin is still threatening his life."

"You think she would try something again?" Nikita asked.

Michael nodded. "That is what Kaylin seemed to imply- if she got the chance she would make another attempt on his life."

"She hasn't done enough already" Alex sarcastically replied.

Nikita brushed Birkhoff's hair carefully from his eyes. Someone was going to have to finish shaving his head- they had already cut and shaved a lot of his hair to repair his head wound. She smiled at the thought of how upset Birkhoff was going to be when he found out they would have to cut his hair. She reached down and grabbed his hand, as best as she could with the huge cast on it- and was shocked when Birkhoff squeezed it back. "Birkhoff?" Nikita questioned in relief.

Birkhoff's other arm lifted slightly off the bed until he felt the pain and dropped it back to the bed with a groan. "It hurts." Birkhoff groaned.

Nikita reached over and carefully upped his morphine drip. "That should help" she cupped Birkhoff's cheek.

Slowly Birkhoff blinked open his eyes. He looked around the group and asked, "What, am I dead?"

"Stacy did a good job making sure you didn't." Michael replied, "How do you feel man?"

"Sore." Birkhoff replied, "Am I going to be okay"

Stacy had come into the room after hearing the excited chatter. "Hi. You're going to be fine." She explained, coming closer to his bed where he could see her. "You have pins in your hands and ankles. You have a temporary colectomy and we removed your spleen, but other than that she missed any major organs. You'll need a little physical therapy for your feet and you'll need physical and occupational therapy on your hands."

Birkhoff lifted his hands to where he could see them. "She broke both my hands?" he groaned in disbelief.

"Yeah." Ryan confirmed. "Sorry man."

"She also got your head. They'll have to buzz the rest of your hair."

"What? They took off my hair?" Birkhoff was in disbelief yet again.

"Did she tell you anything before she attacked you" Michael steered them back towards business.

"She's not Kaylin." Birkhoff replied, "Amanda still has his real sister."

That definitely not the news the rest of the group wanted to hear. It would mean subjecting themselves to Amanda once again. It was worth it for Birkhoff's sister, but it wouldn't be pleasant, that was for sure.

"Did she say anything else" Michael asked.

"No." Birkhoff quietly replied, "That was all she told me before I lost consciousness."

"Did the hair sample come back yet?" Ryan asked.

Michael shook his head. "Birkhoff usually would do the samples so no one has gotten done with it yet. It takes the other techs a little longer."

Nikita was still watching Birkhoff who was complete in shock. He had been beaten up and nearly killed and then found out that he still hadn't rescued his sister. His mind was foggy on what had happened in his room, only bits and pieces played through his mind when it hit him suddenly. "How's Sonya?" he asked.

No one would look Birkhoff in the eye, confirming his worst fears. Even in all the pain, his eyes began to well up with tears. "She's dead, isn't she?"

"I'm sorry Nerd, so sorry." Nikita gave him a hug as Birkhoff just sat there in shock.

Birkhoff wasn't going to be the same for a very long time.


End file.
